MUSIC-MP3 MUSIC-MP3 MUSIC-MP3 Weekly Review: San Remo Festival

The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. From the 1990s alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. It is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward … Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four.[10] Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, as well as major and minor modes. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.

Since the term rock began to be used in preference to rock and roll from the late-1960s, it has often been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development.[20] According to Simon Frith "rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is a genre of popular music, which originated in its modern form in the Western world during the 1950s and 1960s, deriving from rock and roll. Since the term rock began to be used in preference to rock and roll from the late-1960s, it has often been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development.[20] According to Simon Frith "rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll.

Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from most other genres of popular music. It is, "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers and concert promoters) rather than being made from below … In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted against the perceived overblown, inauthentic and overly mainstream aspects of these genres to produce a stripped-down, energetic form of music valuing raw expression and often lyrically characterised by social and political critiques. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere".[20] In the new millennium the term rock has sometimes been used as a blanket term including forms such as pop music, reggae music, soul music, and even hip hop, with which it has been influenced but often contrasted through much of its history.. records for singles "revolutionized the manner in which pop has been disseminated" and helped to move pop music to 'a record/radio/film star system'.[19] Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s; with televised performances, "pop stars had to have a visual presence".[19] In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers could listen to music outside of the home.[19] Multi-track recording (from the 1960s); and digital sampling (from the 1980s) have also been utilized as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music.[7] By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of Music Television channels like MTV, which "favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal". From about 1967 the term was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms.[12] Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of popular music,[12] pop was more commercial, ephemeral and accessible.[13] According to Simon Frith pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", is "designed to appeal to everyone" and "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". As a genre, pop music is extremely eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures.